Ugh — The Dreaded Big Move

Oct 31

Here We Go Again

I love ice cream! One scoop is good; three scoops are better. Vanilla, chocolate, or whatever — it doesn’t matter. Donuts and cinnamon rolls are to die for. And what’s better than baseball, camping, hiking, cool cars, long naps, and strong coffee? Well, the people in my life, of course! Lois, our kids and grandkids, family and friends: I am blessed by all.

But I am human, which means I don’t like everything. Pickles, mayo, beets, chicken gizards — not my thing. Gloomy days, boredom, getting sick, and bad surprises of all kinds I dislike. As for things I hate? There aren’t many, but somewhere on that list is “moving”.

Lois and I have moved 11 times over 43 years of marriage. That means about every 4 years (on average) we subject ourselves to the dreaded moving process. That is, we gather-up our stuff, then sort it, toss it, sell it, pack it, jam it into a truck, and send it on its way. Only then can we celebrate and shout “Yay, we are half done!”.

At this point, thoroughly exhausted and taxed beyond belief, we begin the second act — clean up the old place, drive to the new place, unload the truck, then fill-up our otherwise beautiful new house with boxes full of stuff. Hardly a moment goes by and these same boxes explode open, filling every nook and cranny with empty cartons and mountains of paper, depleting the house of the last of its oxygen and consequently sucking life from our souls. Now doubled down on fatigue and certifiable depression, we begin to setup house.

Somehow hope springs eternal, and bad eventually turns to good. Some months later our house miraculously transforms into a “home”. We celebrate that moment, too, but this time we shout “The move is done!” Counting our blessings and full of joy, we sink roots into the new community and rest in our “forever” home… That is, until we decide to do it all over again. 🙄

Yet Another Move, But With Great Hope and Purpose

So why, oh why, are we once again subjecting ourselves to the dreaded moving process? Because we are a couple who lives by faith, seeks God’s will for our life, and leaves open the possibility that, according to His divine plan, life happens and changes must be made.

And so it is that Lois and I are led into full-time RV’ing. It is a dream come true, for sure. It also addresses some huge needs at this stage of life. Our family is one that suffers from poor health. In Lois’s case, she is afflicted with a number of chronic illnesses that, at times, harshly rule over her life. We muddle through down days, as needed, and realistically accept the fact these illnesses are here to stay. In spite of our circumstances, we choose to make changes for the better, and that begins with leaving the Sacramento Valley. Our climate is horribly hot, and it severely exacerbates Lois’s quality of life. As we begin to make our travel plans, being at the coast or visiting cooler locations is vitally important. Moreover, our new RV/house is a home on wheels. No longer will Lois be stuck in one place. The scenic beauty of our country, forever changing as we move about, will be salve to our souls and provide us the mental health break we need during seasons of poor health.

After a Busy Summer, Our House is on the Market

At the beginning of June, we met with our good friend Peggy Urieff, who is also a realtor, and officially kicked-off prepping our house for sale. Some catch-up repairs were needed, for sure, plus we identified several items in need of updates. Contractors were called in to help, but half the prepping, and all of the moving, was done by us.

An important decision made early on was to sell the house empty. Interestingly, for the sake of the market listing, furniture can be staged virtually in otherwise empty photos of rooms. In choosing this route, renovations and moving were pursued on a pace and schedule that worked best for us. Once on the market, we were free to begin full-time RV’ing with very little left to do at the house. Most importantly, we pursued Peggy’s strategy with loose goals, but never hard dates. Our original objective was to go to market mid-August; what we actually achieved was mid-October. C’est la vie! The dirty deed is done.

So what about this 12th round of moving and all those repairs and renovations? Lois and I:

Minimalized our possessions and purged more than half of our stuff.
Completed many kinds of catch-up repairs.
Repainted most of the interior walls in the house.
Painted nearly all of the tired old wood cabinetry.
Ripped out some outdated late 1990’s design features and hardware.
Replaced some appliances.
Tore out most of the carpet, replacing it with modern luxury vinyl planks.

In short, we flipped our house while still living in it. For those interested in seeing the fruit of our labor, follow this link to Zillow.

What’s left? We need a buyer, of course, and we have a set of chunky stuff in the garage headed to storage. That’s it.

We are currently wading through a weird period where we haven’t relinquished the house, yet we’re full-time RV’ing with travel constraints. No matter; we celebrate this huge accomplishment and thank the Lord for it. I haven’t talked about it yet, but getting to this point wasn’t possible until we found and purchased our motorhome — details to be provided in our next blog, “In Search of Harold”.